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Why do people obsess over Tom Bombadil's origin so much? Thats not too hard... probably a Maia or some kind of earth god. But where do hobbits fit in? We hear about how Eru made Elves and Men, Aule made dwarves, and (I think) Yavanna made Ents with a bit of help from the elves. ANd Morgoth made all the baddies from goodies. We get so much info on hobbits but, who and how were they made? Does anyone know?

Why do they obsess over his origin? Well, Tom's a misterious creature, and interesting, and has a hot girlfriend, and is called "The Master" and whatnot, and that kind of makes you think "Where DID he come from?". Almost all of the creatures Tolkien created he created an origin for them, like you pointed out. So where DID he come from? I think he is a spirit of the Earth in a physical form. Also as you pointed out, tolkien forgot to tell where the hobbits came from. Who knows? Maybe a Dwarf married a woman, had some kids who turned out kind of defected, divorced, etc. and the cross creates hobbits?

Bullroarer, Tolkien didn't "forget" anything. When something was left out like he origin of hobbits and Bombadill for instance it was on perpose to bring more realism to this myth as well as to make it more interessting.

so i'm not the only one who noticed that? perhaps the hobbits are orcs gone awry... maybe melkor created them, accidentally. you know, "Melkor's Bloopers" or something. a shorter, furrier, friendlier orc.

Interesting idea, but I doubt that Melkor would be destroyed by orcs or that he could ever create something like the hobbits. My theory if we're making them is that Iluvatar himself put them into creation in the music with the purpose of saving it.

I would imagine JRR didn't explain their origins because 1) assigning them mythological origin takes away from the simple, earthy feel he always assigns to them, and 2) going into the whole cross-breeding thing, while it might be informative, wouldn't be all that interesting, and it's not really Tolkien's style.

Still, I suppose he could have mentioned it briefly, and cleared up a big question...

Tolkien mentions in Letters that hobbits are really an offshoot of the human race. So while their "evolution" is not detailed, their creation is explained. If they're human, they're some of the Second Children of Iluvatar.

I think Tolkien left each of us the chance to decide by ourselves what it is in our own Middle-Earth.

In MY Middle-Earth, the hobbits are not an offshoot of man. And in fact, in my conception of ME, nobody knows where they come from. Not the hobbits themselves, not even the elves. They always were there.

They are too different from man to be an offshoot. Remember what Tolkien says about hobbits in the HOBBIT...

That's how I see it. Nobody has to agree.

"Why do people obsess over Tom Bombadil's origin so much? Thats not too hard... probably a Maia or some kind of earth god."

In two or three of Tolkien's letters to various peoples Tolkien says that he intentionally does not say what Tom Bombadill is, and that is that. What he was is not obvious and cannot be discovered, but one thing he certainly WASN'T was an earth god. Tolkien says in one of his unsent letters to a religious critic that Iarwin Benadar (Bombadill) is not any kind of god in any way.

"We hear about how Eru made Elves and Men, Aule made dwarves, and (I think) Yavanna made Ents with a bit of help from the elves."

No actually, Yavanna did not make Ents. None of the Valar created any leaving beings wholly, (except Aule), because they were not supposed to do that. It was supposed to all be from the thoughts of Eru, and so came forth the Ents. Read "Of Aule and Yavanna" again in the Silmaillion, Yavanna goes to Manwe and eventually to Eru and asks tells them that she fears for the trees. Eru basically tells her that her worries ARE his worries because all the Valar came from his thought, and so their thoughts are like unto his, and he proclaims the Shepherds of the Trees, or the Ents. As for the elves, they taught them the art of speech, but they took no part in their creation.

"ANd Morgoth made all the baddies from goodies. We get so much info on hobbits but, who and how were they made? Does anyone know? "

Hobbits were originally men that evolved differently. See here in one of J.R.R. Tolkien's letters:

"The Ox. E.D. has in preparation of its Second Supplement got to HOBBIT, which it proposes to include together with its progeny: HOBBITRY, -ISH, etc. I have had, therefore, to justify my claim to have invented the word. My claim rests realy on my 'nude parole' or un-supported assertion that I remember the occasion of its invention (be me); and that I had not THEN any knowledge of HOBBERDY, HABBATY, HOBBERDY DICK etc. (for 'house-sprites'); and that my 'hobbits' were in any case of whoole dissimilar sort, a dimunitive branch of the human race."

There you have it, a dimunitive branch of the human race. I deduce therefore that either they did not waken at the First Dawn like the Men, or they were not considered apart from the Second Born. All things considered, the Quenta Silmarillion comes from the recollection of an elven bard of old (I can't seem to remember the name), and his tales were passed through the elven generations. Because it is an elven tale, hobbits are not spoken of, because well, they knew nothing of them. There is record however of hobbits existing early on in the Second Age, so they have origins far back in time at least.

I hope I have been of help!

P.S. Why are there no elven faces for the posticon? Seems curious to me.

welcome, Lorco! you´re very precise in your answers. i´m sure you´ll enjoy your stay at Entmoot

noldo could answer your question about elven faces cuz he desingned the posticons. all i can say is that there is one elven face: that´s Arwen.

i can remember also Galadriel, but she was taken out because people didn´t like her.

uuh, and there´s also that nice face that noldo kept for his signature. it´s one of my favourites

There are only slots for 10 post icons currently. Noldo made about 25 and I chose what I thought were his ten best.